Grillo attacks Conte: 'He took more votes from Berlusconi dead than he did alive. I am essential for the M5s"

"It's a historic moment, I met Conte yesterday, he made me a little tender. He took more votes Berlusconi when he was dead than he did when he was alive." This was said Beppe Grillo during his show 'I am another' in Fiesole (Florence). The M5s founder and guarantor, who on Monday saw M5s president Giuseppe Conte at the Forum hotel in Rome for a face-to-face after the European elections, did not hide his irritation at the party's management after the disappointing election result (9.9%). 'It is no longer the time to shout,' he remarked, 'it is Conte's time, he is a moderate person. The Movement we made is perhaps no more, they say maybe we are vaporised, maybe that is the right word'. And yet, the closing remark that has the flavour of regret, 'we did wonderful things'.

The M5s guarantor wanted to claim his irreplaceability in the Movement. 'I don't know with Conte how it will end, he must understand that I am essential. Casaleggio and I were different temperaments, we bickered several times a day but we created a wonderful thing,' Grillo added.

Then the spur that is a warning for change: 'The Movement must reform itself, get back on track, talk about the issues. We have reformed politics a little but it is not over because the issues are there'.

Finally, a jab at Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and another at Conte. 'We no longer have the "psychonano" we have the "psychonana", with terrible suits and jackets that Merkel gave him'. And again: 'I like the psychonana,' Grillo added, 'she also has a sense of humour. The joke she made on De Luca was sensational, I would have embraced it. We should regain some sense of humour then all you have to do is talk to Conte for 15 minutes and it passes, because he is an academic, a professor, a lawyer'.